One of Teatro San Carlo’s most cherished productions of recent years, with an excellent cast of singers and a director who steered at his ease into the libretto’s erratic changes of mood and atmosphere.

This Swanlake is a continued homage to classical female beauty and the awe-inspiring dancing that women are capable of. The swans' collective mourning at Siegfried’s betrayal and its consequences as well as their collective disapproval are palpable.

The pairing of Mahler’s Fifth Symphony with the Violin Concerto of Brahms felt conspicuously like a calling card from an orchestra that sees itself as a contender for wider recognition, on this showing with good reason.

Edward Gardner clearly has a thing for the Czechs. A month after he made his Royal Opera main-stage debut with Janáček's Katya Kabanova, here he was with the Filarmonica della Scala to conduct a strongly Czech programme.